Indonesia blocks nearly 50,000 online gambling ads online in the New Year
Between 1 January and 6 January, Indonesia’s Communication and Digital Affairs Ministry announced that it had blocked 43,063 digital advertisements related to online gambling.
Molly Prabawaty, Komdigi Ministry’s Acting Director General of Public Communication and Media, responded to the ads being placed on various social media accounts and websites, saying, “President Prabowo Subianto and Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid have emphasized the urgency to protect our youngsters from online gambling, online loans, and other negative items of content in the digital space.”
The news comes after Indonesia’s crackdown on online gambling, which is a punishable offense in the country, with around 5.5 million online gambling-related advertisements being taken down since 2017.
From October 2024 to January 2025, over 700,000 items were shut down in response to reports received by the public and various institutions. Around 650,000 items were identified on websites and IP addresses, 30,000 were linked to Meta, and around 18,000 were on file-sharing platforms.
Online gambling appears to be trife in Indonesia even though it is illegal, with nearly 3 million participants seen in the past year. Indonesian officials warn of the social consequences related to gambling as there has been a spark in gambling-related debts.
Verticals:
Sectors:
Topics:
